Chapter 1: Room to Room

Most folks don’t give much thought to motel maids.

They come and go, just passing through town, hardly noticing the woman pushing her cart down the cracked sidewalks—collecting trash, wiping down sinks, folding towels stiff as cardboard. They don’t think about what her eyes have seen or the stories she could tell about what happens once those motel doors click shut.

But me?

Honey, I’ve seen it all.

I’ve been working at the Summit View Motor Lodge for nearly nine years now—long enough to stop counting shifts and start counting stories. The lodge sits right on the edge of town, tucked along a two-lane highway that winds through the old hills and into the valley below. Nothing fancy. Twenty-three rooms, all lined up like shoeboxes, with faded red doors and a neon sign that flickers more than it glows.

But let me tell you, something about this town ... it draws in the strangest sorts.

Part of it’s the university just down the road—the one everyone around here lives and breathes for come fall. The Gamecocks. Lord, don’t get me started. Every Saturday, this place fills up with alumni, students, drunks, and drifters, all spilling into town like it’s some kind of holy pilgrimage. Tailgates. Bonfires. Nights nobody remembers but their phone bills sure will.